SWIMMING AT THE 2018 ASIAN GAMES

China’s Wang Jianjiahe completed the distance treble on the final night of competition at the 2018 Asian Games, winning the 400 freestyle in a new Games Record of 4:03.18. The swim broke Shao Yiwen of China’s old mark of 4:05.58 from 2010.

That performance gives Wang her third gold and third meet record in the women’s distance events, having also won the 800 and 1500 earlier in the competition. As the 1500 was competed in for the first time here, she’s obviously the first to ever sweep all three, and joins the elusive club of Junie Sng (1978), Yan Ming (1986, 1990) and Chen Hua (1998) who have done the 400/800 double.

Wang’s countrymate Li Bingjie won silver in 4:06.46, as she has now placed 2nd to Wang in all three distance events. Li did have a win of her own in the 200 free, and the two 16-year-olds teamed up for another gold in the 4×200 free relay.

Wang’s swim fell just a few one-hundredths shy of her personal best from the TYR Pro Series stop in Atlanta, where she went 4:03.14 to put herself 4th in the world for the year. Li, the 2017 World Championship bronze medalist in this event, remains the Asian and Chinese Record holders with her 4:01.75 from last year.

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Adam

USA Swimming, U.S. swimmers, and Mission Viejo should be questioning why Mark Schubert, former U.S. National Team Director, has membership in USA Swimming and is using our country’s facilities and othr resources to coach Chinese swimmers. See article at link.

Yes, this is unprecedented for an American coach to coach swimmers of a different nationality! There should be a full-scale investigation into this grievous wrong!

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2 months ago

Hotlanta

If the coaching of foreign swimmers by USA coaches is occurring as frequently as your sarcastic comment would seem to indicate, then perhaps a membership policy change or full disclosure policy by USA Swimming is necessitated. Because I don’t think that U.S. donors and sponsors of the USOC and USA Swimming would be pleased to learn that their dollars are funding, for example, Team China’s swim team.

I’m not a lawyer, but that may not be legal for a US sports organization to enact.

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2 months ago

Ricky

I am pretty sure it would be legal for USA Swimming to cut off its resource allocation to U.S. teams and coaches (like Mission Viejo and Schubert) who are using USA Swimming resources/facilities to train swimmers from nations such as China that have had systemic doping issues. It is also not a good look for a U.S. coach to admit to seeing problems in China “out in the provinces with local coaches and kind of renegade athletes” and yet for that coach to continue to travel abroad to work with that nation’s swimmers at the Asian Games.

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2 months ago

Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger

Oh, I see. You’ve been frozen in Carbonite since 2009. Let me catch you up: Schubert isn’t the US National head coach anymore. He’s not even on USA Swimming’s payroll. There’s really no rational argument that he has some obligation to only coach athletes of one nationality. And there’s no USA Swim money specifically finding Schubert, so it’s misinformed to act like there’s some secret money trail from the US being sneakily diverted to China. Also, it’s 2018. Being weirdly defensive and threatened by these ‘non-Americans’ is a bad look. Swimming is global. Everyone trains with everyone, everywhere. College coaches are training rosters full of swimmers from around the world – and there’s something beautiful about that. Florida won an… Read more »

If you’re concerned about institutional doping with China, is it not better to have Chinese athletes training for Schubert at Mission Viejo in the US, where they’re monitored and tested by USADA?

As for Schubert himself, you seem hung up on his former job as US National coach. He’s not that anymore. Do you believe Bill Belichick should have a moral qualm with coaching the New England Patriots because he used to coach the Cleveland Browns? Is Todd Desorbo not ethically allowed to coach Virginia because he used to be on staff for their ACC rival NC State?

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2 months ago

taa

You are looking at this all wrong. Schubert is sabotaging them look at Li Bingjie at the Asian games. He is very patriotic by doing this and he took their money also so he is helping the US economic trade imbalance. MVN is not any kind of training hotbed today its actually a team in decline. Look at their Jr national team finish, they barely scored any points this summer. If he has lane space then let them train and hopefully USADA is testing them the same as any USA national team member.

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2 months ago

SwimObserver

What taa said. How many swimmers has Schubert made world class in the last 15 years versus how many careers has he ruined? Especially women?

If you’re scared, it’s not because you think America’s best coaches are training Chinese swimmers to beat Americans lol.

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2 months ago

Phoenix

Regarding Chinese doping, Schubert is quoted in the article as saying “From what I’ve seen, most of the problems are out in the provinces with local coaches and kind of renegade athletes.” So, if he has actually seen that, does he have a duty or responsibility to report it to WADA or CHINADA or is he just going to be complicit in it?

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2 months ago

ERIC LAHMY

The answer is: money. Chinese pay well. And as you know, my money smells good, the money of other people is disgusting!!!

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2 months ago

About James Sutherland

James is currently a university swimmer for the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He is studying economics. Along with swimming, he also loves hockey. He's in his 14th season as a competitive swimmer.
Best Times - SCM (LCM)
50 FR - 24.56 (25.12)
100 FR - 53.58 (56.70)
200 FR - 1:56.07 (2:04.29)
1500 …